The global energy context: the key role played by Snam in decarbonisation

The year just ended was characterised by the increasing awareness of companies and institutions worldwide of climate change and the effects caused by the rise in temperature.

A great many studies and reports have been published during the year, which analyse the actions needed in order to reduce the emissions originating from human activities and therefore slow the rise in the average temperature with respect to the pre-industrial period.

Of these, Snam helped analyse the future energy scenarios, examining the crucial role that natural gas may play in the global energy mix in the 2018 edition of the “Global Gas Report”. The study, which Snam, International Gas Union (IGU) and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) unveiled at the June World Gas Conference of Washington DC (USA), analyses the scenarios for the use of natural gas, a flexible, programmable energy source that will give increasing support over the next few years to economic growth and the fight against climate change, in a process of world decarbonisation and rapid changes to global energy balances.

According to the main energy scenarios developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and analysed in the study, natural gas consumption is set to grow significantly: the “Global Gas Report” highlights a strong rise in the global demand for gas in 2017 and the main forecasts suggest that by 2035, gas may exceed coal as the world’s second most important source of energy, after oil, increasing its share in the total energy mix from the current 22% to more than 24%.

In this historic period of changes to global energy balances, Snam intends to play a guiding role in the country’s transition towards a decarbonised economic model.

The activities of the company, which already leads the national natural gas transmission, storage and regasification market, put Snam in a key position to achieve the national and European commitments to mitigate the effects of climate change. This is why, in accordance with the targets set in the Strategic Plan for the next few years, Snam will be supporting the use of its infrastructures to promote innovative businesses in the energy efficiency, biomethane and sustainable mobility sectors.

Gas is projected to be the fastest growing fossil fuel

Enabled by key market developments